For the past few years, I had always associated X-Factor with that British blowhard Simon Cowell’s incessant desire to print money. Mountains of money that include $100 bills adorned with the face of Ben Franklin and not the visage of an Asian woman whom some soulless focus group (probably comprised of seniors who live in old age homes and need something to complain about) determined was not representative the country. Hey-o, topical!

My apologies, I got off track there. As it turns out, the X-Factor all this time has been… Kyle Turris!

While Turris, 23, was painted as a bit of a troublemaker for orchestrating his trade out of Phoenix, Murray couldn’t be happier with his acquisition today.

“He’s a terrific kid,” Murray told NHL.com, minutes after Turris left his office for an offseason chat. “He’s been here just about every day working out; he’s up to about 198 pounds now. He looks like he’s really matured into a man.”

The Senators will need Turris to play like a man if they hope to improve on last season’s eighth-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

All that’s missing from Basu’s piece is a rehashed Jacques Martin quote about the NHL being a man’s league. Ah well, the fact that Spezza was the last Sens center to mature into a man has to bode well, right?

With the uncertainty of a potential lockout looming over the NHL, tickets for the Ottawa Senators went on sale yesterday and CTV news covered the event as part of their 6pm news coverage last night.

Judging by the fact that CTV interviewed a guy wearing a Leafs hat (0:55 seconds into the linked video) who bought tickets, I’ll just assume that things were a little slow for those who showed up at SBP to purchase tickets…

CTV did report that ticket sales are on par with where they were last summer.

Jeff Kyle, the Vice-President of Marketing for the Senators, also mentioned that, “We’re proceeding business as usual. We know fans are excited about our team based on how they played last year and that is what we are seeing so far (in sales).”

A group led by the Ottawa Senators organization has come forward with plans to turn the aging Potvin Arena into an east end version of the Bell Sensplex compete with four ice pads.

Ottawa Community Ice Partners built the Sensplex through a public private partnership arrangement with the city in 2004. The arrangement has turned out to be a successful enterprise for both partners and now the group has been selected as the preferred bid to carry out a similar project where the Potvin Arena now sits on Shefford Road near Canotek Park.